Fall is my favorite time to trade the road bike for fat tires and fun in the woods. Last weekend me and my freinds Jim and Eric drove down to mid-southern Indiana to ride some of the best designed and maintained trails in the midwest at Brown County State Park. This has now become an annual tradition, this past weekend being the 4th consecutive year of our pilgramage.
This was peak season, with leaves in near full color, and nary a hotel room to be found with a lot of tourist activity happening in the area. No trail passes are required in the State park so you can ride all day for a mere $7 parking fee.
This was peak season, with leaves in near full color, and nary a hotel room to be found with a lot of tourist activity happening in the area. No trail passes are required in the State park so you can ride all day for a mere $7 parking fee.
The area saw nearly 2 inches of rain on Wednesday and Thursday so there was some concern about the trails being too wet to ride Saturday morning. We arrivfed at about 11:00 am local time and condtions were perfect. Sunny and 50 degees with temps climbing to low 60s in the afternoon. Trails were dry.
This is the second year I rented a bike to take down with us. While I like my hardtail, a full suspension bike really takes the edge off of two days of riding, and I aint getting any younger. Last year I tried out the Specialized Cambr. This year I went with the Stump Jumper which has a beefier suspension yet. Jim also picked up an Epic to bring down in addition to his own ride. Both were Specialized "test bikes" which we rented from Pedal & Spoke in North Aurora. They set us up real nice! This was great cause we were able to switch bikes on day 2 to make comparisons on likes and dislikes. Eric already owns a Stump Jumper,also built by Pedal & Spoke, but his is an XL so no sharing, cause Eric is like 7 feet tall! All the bikes were niners, so this was also a new experience for both Jim and I.
Sweet Ride
This year, we all agreed to take it slow, since some of us have not done a lot of trail riding this year (me), and some of us were not in top physical shape (me), and some of us broke bones the last time we came (no comment).
Eric
Jim
Me
Hesitation Point
We rode all day and were beat by the time we got off the trails at about 5:30. Great day for sure. Only a few crashes, no game stoppers. The full suspension bike took the bumps very well. I was very impressed with the Stump Jumper. Gonna have to start saving up for one.
Sunday we rode some more remote, rustic trails at Valley Branch Retreat which is only a few miles from the State Park. The trails here were very different compared to the fast and heavily ridden trails at Brown County. This place is spread over 500 acres and has some very scenic heavily forested terrain. Most of the riding was over leaf covered trails and up and down very steep hills. A great workout. A great place to get lost. We checked out some really cool ziplines they just set up this summer. You can spend up to 4 hours traveling through the vast canopy without doing the same line twice.
I got to ride the Epic today which is a bit lighter than the Stump Jumper and stiffer and better for climbing. This came in handy on the steep climbs. I probably rode the ideal bike each respective day based on the type of terrain and trails. Thus I love them both, Cannot decide which one to get!
Eric gives Shadow a drink from his CamelBak
End of another great day
A Couple of Videos from my helmet-cam
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